The Best Paint Colors for Your Front Door

One of the fastest ways to amp up curb appeal is by painting your front door a fun and bright color.

Fastest unless you have painter’s indecision…

Picking the best color for your front door can seem like a daunting task when there are so manyoptions available.

It can seem like a big risk to choose a bold color for the entrance to your home. You know you want a change, but are nervous for the outcome.

What color should I choose?

Will I like it?

Will we be that weird house on the street people talk about??

Take a deep breath and keep reading. Today I’ll be sharing the following with you…

1. A sidewalk tour of three homesin my neck of the woods that get it right with bright doors.
2. The best color families for your front door.
3. A researched round-up of 18 gorgeous paint colors for you to consider. (No more guesswork!)

Our neighborhood boasts some of the THE most beautiful historic homes with great big porches and brightly colored doors.

I might be slightly biased.

The owners of this gorgeous home around the block decided on a bright yellow against steely gray paint. With the white trim and red brick, it was the perfect choice. I like how they personalized their porch by adding the yellow “S” above the rocking chairs.

You see letters used (and often overused) in interiors, but this was the first time I saw it on a front porch. It’s so unexpected, and I love it.

My friend Danielle chose this gorgeous poppy for her front door. If you look closely, you’ll se that it is actually a screen door. Her front door has been left in the natural wood finish. I love how she chose to paint her drop leaf table to match. It adds that second punch of color. (Aren’t you jealous of her front porch?)

Another friend of mine, Dana, chose this fun shade of green for her front door and shutters. She wanted to add some life to her ranch style home and decided to play with styles by adding a craftsman style door.

While she took a risk with an unconventional door style choice, I think it worked out beautifully. Because the green has yellow undertones that match the brick, it leads to a more monochromatic appearance.

I’ve picked these 6 color families based on what I feel works best on most people’s homes. (If you can pull off a purple door, more power to you. Most of us can’t.)

DO YOU NEED SOME COLOR IN YOUR HOME LIFE?
A pop of color leading into your home can do these three things:

1.Infuse your personality into the exterior of your house in a meaningful but contained way.
2. Serve as a reference point for guests to spot you. (“We’re the third house on the left with the bright yellow door!”)
3. Add much needed contrast and color to a predominantly muted color palette.

Yes…it says “15 colors”, but there are actually 18 colors.

18 GORGEOUS COLORS TO PAINT YOUR FRONT DOORThere are thousands of great options to choose from, but I’ve collected some of the best paint colors for your front door to make things simpler.

TIPS TO REMEMBER
-Don’t forget to ask for an exterior paint. Even if you are painting the inside of the door to match, you can still use it inside.
-Steer clear of a high gloss finish if you have an older door. A satin finish will hide imperfections much better than a glossy finish.
-Here are some really helpful tips on what supplies and method to use when painting an exterior door.

MY ORANGE FRONT DOOR
When I decided to paint our door orange, I did feel a bit nervous. Looking back it was the best thing I did for our home that spring.

Orange isn’t necessarily one of my favorite colors. In fact you won’t find it anywhere on the inside of the house. But for our existing finishes like the gray stone work, white trim, and chalky blue shutters it works well.

I chose to only paint the exterior orange and leave the interior side of the door white. This is kind of a hot-button topic because some say you should always have the two sides of the doors match.

Well, I chose to break that design rule…

And there are no front-door-paint police coming to get me.

MY ALL-TIME FAVORITE PAINT SUPPLIES
I’ve painted a lot of rooms in my day, and here are some of the supplies that make the job SO much easier…

1. The best angled brush I’ve ever used.

2. The only painter’s tape that REALLY peels away clean.

3. Convenient way to save time AND your back when trimming.

4. This little number will keep your paint brush fresh while working on a project.

5. A GENUIS invention to keep your paint can pour and store much cleaner.

Happy painting, friends!

***If you would like help selecting paint colors for your exterior or interior, color consults start at $99. (Please email: heather@thedecorfix.com) I cannot make recommendations in the comments section without seeing pictures of your home or thoroughly reviewing other finishes. As much as I’d like to give everyone who asks free advice, with the amount of requests I receive each week this is just not feasible. Thank you for understanding!

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Comments

I’m currently struggling with this exact issue! I spent about an hour on Sherwin Williams’ Color Visualizer tool using a picture of my house and settled on a general family of colors – I think. My house is a red-orange brick colonial revival and I’m thinking of a dark teal (close to your option 1 above). I brought home a swatch of what I think is the winner but I’m still undecided. Yes I’m afraid of paint. I need to just go for it.

I get it, Catherine…Paint is intimidating! It sounds like a dark teal would complement the red-orange brick nicely. Here’s a tip…Make sure that whatever color you choose has a been toned down with a tiny bit of grey. (You might notice most of the ones I rounded up have this.) Pure hues are too bright for outside and stand out in a bad way. A hint of grey in the mix tames it down just enough to work. Make sense? My advice is buy two colors and paint a section of the door. Live with it for a day or two. (Who cares what the neighbors say.) Then just go for it!

Hi Cath, It’s so hard to say without actually seeing pictures of your house or the actual paint colors;/ I do offer paint plans sourcing for my clients if you’d like further help though. Let me know if you’d like to set something up!

Catherine, I would love to know what color you picked. It sounds like we are working with the same colors. I was thinking of a dark teal blue myself. It is hard to know sometimes from just a paint swatch. Would love to know if you found a nice color and where. Thanks!

Hi Katie! I went with SW St Bart’s. It reads very blue, so if you want something closer to teal you might look at SW Deep Sea Dive. I’m really happy with the color and get tons of compliments! Good luck!

Our front door needs a new color so badly! But for some reason I can’t seem to settle on anything I like. I think my problem is I’m so set on a specific look from when we were going to build. I want the house to someday be white with a red door, and the blue exterior is throwing me off. Love your examples and color options!

That’s so hard when you had a picture in your mind and then have to adjust to the reality that plays out! At least you have your long term plan in place. Sounds like you need a temporary “fix”? that works with the blue door until you can repaint everything else.

What wonderful colors! We just moved into a two story brick (red brown) house w black shutters and way too many windows (6 symmetrical on the bottom but on 2nd floor there are 8, 2 of the same on each side then 4 smaller ones in the middle). W a small entrance, I feel the orange-red door gets lost. I have always had a bright colored door but I’m struggling w choosing a color. There is white around the orange-red door now. Any thoughts? I’m leaning towards a shade of white.

Timely post for me as we plan an exterior paint job on our two story brick/cedar colonial. It’s currently pink/red brick (which I like) with Orange cedar stain on the second story and red craftsman shutters. We have settled on a muddy gray for the cedar but I’m still lost of shutter and door color. My problem is most inspiration photos all have white trim and windows and ours are charcoal gray. I was leaning towards muted Aqua shutters and a stained front door side windows and all. Can’t get a fun door color out of my mind but didn’t know if would be too busy and what color should the sidelight windows be. Any thought?

Hi Kelli! Hmm, sounds like a tricky call for sure…Hard to help without seeing pics. Let me know if you’d like to set up a quick paint consult. (I recently added that as a way for clients to get feedback on just that one issue.) Have you checked out Houzz.com? There are so many inspiration pics there for exteriors. You might come across something there to help!

I’ve just hanged my front door…sprucing up prior to selling……and that door was fuschia pink. I want to go with an orange shade for the new door, I want to go with an orange shade and love the colour of your front door….could you tell me what it’s called please. My house is a mix of Deep Ocean …a deep blue…and Paperbark…not quite a cream. These are Australian Colourbond paints so you may not know them. I notice in the pics you show that most of the doors have a white trim around…..mine is the deep ocean which matches the rest of the trims and the roof. Should it be white, although I have no other white on the house? Thanks….

Hello Nanette! It’s hard to say without really knowing the colors or seeing pics of your house. The color on my door was a custom match but it’s closest to Sherwin William’s “Autumnal”. I’ll email you a link to the source.

I was instructed to not use exterior paint inside as it does still off gas fumes at the SW store?

here’s my color question.. my home is a pale blue siding with black shutters with white windows.. I used the color consulting appointment and she picked a deep greige color (can’t think of it right now at work) but I’d love a punch of color instead. What would you recommend?? Red? is that too much with black shutters?

I’m sure that’s probably right, Jenn. (The guys at SW take their job pretty seriously!) For such a small area like a door, I’ve done it before though. Obviously painting a whole room would not be a good call. To play it safe, you could always have the same color mixed for interior as well as exterior.

Did you hire a designer for the paint consult or someone through SW? Hard to give you specific advice without seeing pics. I’ll shoot you an email about a “Quick Question” service to see if I can help you out.

Thanks for sharing this advice on choosing the best color for your front door. I had no idea that bright colors were so popular for front doors now– I might have to look into having my own door repainted. The orange door looks really wonderful, in my opinion– it works really well with the stone!

We have a smaller ranch style single story home, but it has 9 (yes 9!) doors to the outside. I have been wanting to paint our front door for ages, but couldn’t figure out if all the outside doors should then be painted the same color. If o choose a bright color it seems like it would be too overwhelming to have 9 yellow doors. What do you think? How might I handle this dilemma?

Wow, that’s a lot of doors, Julie!! We have three doors and I chose to keep two neutral and dark while the front door was my bright pop of color. I think keep the front door your only bright color and the other eight the same neutral if possible. If you painted them all, the front door loses it’s prominence and the focus might be confused. Make sense?

Stumbled upon your post – and remember struggling with door colours! I give myself credit with being pretty darn good with colours – but I never start with what I like. I begin with the colour of the house, the soffits, the roof, and the lighting. I have light terracotta brick, and pale grey soffits. I went with a deeper version of #9 and there’s no ‘ghosts of Christmas’ in my colour scheme (luckily). It ties the warmer light neutrals I picked for the rest of the painting (windows, garage doors) and still doesn’t clash with my much-detested grey soffits. Colour is everything… we just have to dare! Loving your posted options

I was thinking teal but there are several homes in the neighborhood with that color. There are also a lot of black, charcoal, red and various shades of blue. I’m leaning towards a burnt orange. Would it look weird if I painted around the window on the side of the door as well for extra pop?

Hi Michelle! It’s a bit hard to say without actually digging into your home and specific colors more, but I think grey and orange do look nice together. I would still do the frame white, not in orange. It will help the orange stand out more. (If you need more specific help picking paint colors, I offer this service to my clients. Feel free to email me:)

We recently purchased our first home and I love every inch of it! Except the exterior paint, which is awful. It’s almost an exact match for Cellini gold by behr, white trim, ranch, lots of shuttered windows, ruddy brown roof tiles…I’d love to give the house a pop of color but it seems like such an odd(read-terrible) color that I’m having difficulty pairing anything with, that I wonder if I’d be better off waiting until we paint the house(years off).opinion? Is there no helping the orangey-pink house with a happy gem of a door?

Hello, so I’m stuck on trying to find the right color for my front door. My house siding is like a grayish color with like a light bluish color trim. Please help! Do you have to also match the inside of your door to the exterior color of the door?

I just painted my garage a leafy romaine color with white trim. The fence next to it is a chocolate brown. I’m looking to paint the side exterior door a new color. I’m not too sure if I should go with a blue, orange or a brown. I’m not too afraid of color. Any suggestions would be much appreciated.

I am STRUGGLING with a front door color. We just bought a new craftsman style door with sidelights and haven’t installed it yet. I can’t decide on a color and have painted the old door about 4 different colors, trying to find one I like. Every time, I find the color to be off…too grey, too bright, too bland. I have been leaning toward aqua shades. My last color on the old door was “Strawberry Margarita”, which was pretty bold. I want something softer/prettier this round. Your number 6 looks like something I would like, but every time I find one I like, it looks different in person than it does online. Our house is light taupe, white trim on the windows and doors and have darker taupe (bronze is the color name) shutters on the windows on our porch. The front door tends to be in shade most of the day because of the porch overhang. Help???!!! Any suggestions would be appreciated!

Any suggestion on coordinating shutter color without matching them to the front door? I have taupe siding & am drawn to the blues/aquas for the door. I’m not sure if the shutters should be the same color as the door or if I should go with a complimentary color. We are southern facing & things seem to fade to other colors–right now we have red that looks more orange.

This post was very interesting. I have a 1940 home in the historic district of Savannah GA. I just had it repainted and although my interior is mostly in the coastal blues category I stuck with the original exterior colors of white siding and trim with Charleston green shutters and canopies. My screen door is black and front door a boring white. What color should I paint my front door and should I paint the screen door the same color? Thank you.

Hi! Does the house with the green door in the pics you showed have the same color shutters or are they a shade or two darker? I have green paint already for door and love the look in that pic!
Also, if I have beige (vinyl one color brick a shade darker) house, green door and then do green shutters…..where do I look for fence color? Pull in something to match trim work (white), look to browns and bring in a new color, match to brick color? Thanks!

Bright colors on the doors look extraordinary Heather, a great point of view. On a gray background, or anything from the taupe family in fact, the contrast brought forward is exemplary ! Thanks for sharing these; I might go for gray and green mint 😀 !

I love the colors you have listed as possibilities for front doors. I really want to paint my front door, but I am struggling with it because we have a mahogany stained door. It currently needs to be sanded and stained and, yes, because if faces the west, it gets a lot of sun and needs lots of regular maintenance. My question is do you think it is okay to paint just the exterior part of the door and leave the stained, interior side as is?

I never though the color painted on the front door of a house could make such a dramatic difference. The home with the yellow door is beautiful. I usually stay away from bright colors but it seems like if your house is painted with the right colors then it won’t be overwhelming.

Normally I’m not drawn to yellow, but I actually really love the color of your neighbor’s door. It’s so pretty and it pops so well against that dark gray. Now I might have to consider painting our door yellow! Thanks for sharing!

We have a plain flat metal white entrance door with no panels except a nice half-moon glass panel on above portion of door. I wan paint it Bold Blue or any recommendations? Shroud I add panels/moldings? Leave the frame. There’s red brick around the door-frame.

When you painted the exterior of your door orange and left the inside white, which color did you have on the sides, top and bottom? I’d like to do a burgundy exterior and white interior, but can’t decide on the edges. The woodwork in the foyer is white.
I’m still deciding if I want to put in a storm door and which color to use.
Thanks for any advice!

Hi Heather,
Is the orange that you used on your front door the SW Navel? We have an Austin stone exterior with gray hand railing. The orange looks great on your front door. You mentioned that your shutters are a chalky blue. Do you know that paint color off hand? I’m not very good at picking paint colors! Thank you! Your article has helped a lot!

Great article! Thank you! Your friends house (with the yellow door), what is another color that would look good with it in your opinion? A red? We have the same brick and will be doing that grey. I’m just not into the yellow…

Hi- I have a light blue vinyl sided house. I’m looking for a front door and shutter color that is not black or white as everyone seems to do that with this particular lt. Blue (I describe it as 80s country geese light blue). If I search online for a fun, different color the blue of the houses are more of a darker blue or grayish blue. If only. That seems easier to work with. Any ideas for me? Thanks!!!

We are in the process of buying a new home. My Mother’s Day gift this year is choosing the front door color! This article has helped me narrow it down to a poppy like orange or a teal. House is dark gray btw. Before I choose I want to find planters and a rocking chair. Too much if all same color? Farmers style porch. Thanks!

I have a small 1200 square foot ranch house on 4 acres with approximately 15 trees. I love my little ranch but it looks small on this land. My house is white vinyl sided with light grey trim. The natural wooden oak door didn’t seem to match so I painted it purple, my favorite color.

Now I’m not happy with my choice. The door looks beautiful after sanding, priming, and painting it with Sherwin Williams (HGSW2411) Resilience Exterior Acrylic Latex Satin but the dark bright purple Amethyst G (may look like new color Kimono Violet SW6839) also doesn’t seem to go with the small white house. Maybe the purple was too bold for the small house? Would toning down the purple to (Wood Violet SW6557 / Plum SW6263 / Renwick Heather SW2818) look better or should I choose a different color all together?

I like purple, blue, aqua, light green, and yellow (colors above of 1, 2, 5,6,8, 11). I will not paint the door pink, mauve, red, orange, brown, black, grey, or white. Any suggestions other than purple/plum? Please help!!

My father lived with me after tornado took his home which he was to old to start over now he is grow and he was always happy but Ian trying g to change shuttle things in home I have a brown dpcedar home and it has been red/burgundy for years what aqua or turquoise would you suggest

On a Serious Note

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